Sermon on progress.

We are written from Montauban:

These days an interesting fact took place in our city, which impressed the population in various ways. A Protestant preacher, Mr. Rewile, chaplain to the king of Holland, in a discourse delivered before two thousand persons, revealed himself clearly to be a partisan of the new ideas. We felt happy to hear, for the first time, these sublime truths proclaimed from the height of a Christian pulpit, and developed with exceptional talent and eloquence. However well he acquitted himself, the fanatics hastened to confer upon him the title of antichrist. I regret not being able to transmit the entire sermon, but I will try to analyze some of its passages. “The orator had taken as his text: ‘I came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them. Love with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your understanding, and your neighbor as yourself.’ “According to Mr. Rewile, the mission of Christ among men was a mission of charity and of spirituality; his doctrine seemed, then, to be in opposition to that of the Jews, whose principle was the ‘strict observance of the law,’ a principle that would engender egoism. But the expression to fulfill explains this apparent contradiction, because it means to complete, to render more perfect. Now, to substitute charity for egoism and spirituality for the cult of matter, was to fulfill, to complete the law. In vain did Christ try to make that nation break the chains of matter, elevating its thought and making it regard its destiny from on high; never could it understand the depth of his moral teaching. Thus, when he wished to attack abuses of every sort, the exterior practices, and to soften the rigors of the Mosaic law, he was accused and basely condemned. The Jews were expecting a conquering Messiah who, armed with a scepter of iron, would give them as their share the temporal power, and they did not understand what was great, what was sublime in him who, with a feeble reed in his hand, came to bring to Humanity, as a pledge of his spiritual strength, the law of love and of charity. “But the designs of God are always realized, despite all resistances. If the Jews, as workers of ill will, refused to labor in the vineyard, Humanity has nonetheless marched and will march no less, dragging in its passage everything that constitutes an obstacle to reaching progress. The Christian Church, under penalty of decadence, must follow this ascending march, because Humanity was not made for the Church, but the Church for Humanity. Woe to whoever resists, for he will be pulverized by the hand of progress. Was not progress made to answer for the future?

“Let the sons of the nineteenth century, contrary to the conduct of the ancient Jews, understand and accomplish their work! Do they not already experience that involuntary trembling, which stirs all elite intelligences and which impels them spontaneously toward the conquest of spiritualist ideas, the sole guarantee of happiness for Humanity? For, without spirituality, there is only matter, and without liberty there is only slavery. Why, then, resist any longer these noble impulses of the soul and attribute to the demon these new signs of modern times? Why not, rather, see in them the inspirations of the celestial messengers of a God of love and of charity, announcing to us the renewal of Humanity? “Let the Christian Church return to the spirit. Indeed, what is the Church without the spirit, but a corpse, a true corpse in the very meaning of the word?… Let him who has ears hear! The true Church, in these critical days, has the right to count on its sons… Come, on your feet and to work! let each one fulfill his duty. God wills it! God wills it!

“If Christ came to fulfill, that is, to complete the law through the practice of the love of God and of men, it is because he considered this precept as summing up human perfection. The law of love of God and of men is, as Christ himself teaches, a law of the first order, to which all the others are subordinate. It is necessary, then, to practice it in its broadest meaning, in order to draw near to him and, consequently, to God, of whom he was the highest expression on Earth. To love God it is necessary to love the truth, the beautiful, the good; to feel oneself inwardly transported toward these attributes of moral perfection; but it is also necessary to love one's brothers, one's fellow men, in whom God is reflected in what is true, beautiful, and good. “Why did Christ love Humanity even to the point of giving his life for it? Because, being also the highest expression of human perfection, he felt in the highest degree the effects of this law of love of God and of men, and practiced it in a sublime manner… To practice charity, to love, is to march with great strides on the path of the true, the beautiful, the good; it is to go to God! To love is to live; it is to go to immortality!”

According to what was reported to me, Mr. Rewile is said to have addressed with success the question of the manifestations, in the two conferences given to the students of the Faculty. He is said to have answered victoriously all the objections. I regret not having been able to hear him on this so interesting occasion.

Observation. – The Spirits had indeed said that Spiritism would find defenders in the very ranks of its adversaries. Such a discourse in the mouth of a minister of religion, and delivered from the height of the pulpit, is a grave event. Let us hope to see others, because the example of courage of opinion is contagious. The new ideas will also not be slow to find avowed champions in high science, in literature, and in the press; there they already enjoy more sympathy than is thought. It is only the first step that costs. Until today it may be said that, with the exception of the special organs of Spiritism, which do not address the mass of the indifferent public, only our adversaries have had the floor, and God knows whether they used it! Now the struggle begins. What will they say when they see justly honored and esteemed names emerge from their ranks, openly raising the banner of the doctrine? It is said that all shall be fulfilled.